Police target aggressive drivers along I-75

A multi-department crash investigation team stopped nearly 50 vehicles in Oakland County during a Tuesday initiative geared toward putting the brakes on aggressive driving.

“The freeway is not a peaceful place,” Bloomfield Township Sgt. Craig Shackleford said during a media ride-along for the initiative. “Aggressive drivers endanger everyone around them.”

Eleven officers from the Southeast Oakland County Crash Investigation Team, through a $5,000 grant from the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, stepped up traffic patrols Tuesday along I-75 from Baldwin to 14 Mile roads.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, speeding was a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes in 2011, while 9,944 people died in speeding-related crashes.

“And you still have people going at the same types of high speeds,” said Auburn Hills Lt. Ryan Gagnon Tuesday. “The majority of serious and fatal accidents and crashes occur on (I-75). ... We’re asking people to slow it down on the freeway.”

In total, 43 vehicles were pulled over during the enforcement period. Thirty people were issued speeding citations — two for driving 104 mph in a 70 mph zone — seven were ticketed for following too closely or improper lane changes and one man was arrested on an unpaid child support warrant.

The SOCCIT team, comprised of officers from the Auburn Hills, Troy and Bloomfield Township police departments, shares resources to investigate accidents that occur in those three areas. The partnership, Gagnon said, reduces overtime costs for the three departments and has cut about an hour off the time it takes officers to clear a crash site since the group’s inception around 2010.

The purpose of Tuesday’s aggressive-driving crackdown wasn’t to tout the team’s effectiveness, Gagnon said. It’s so people know there is no tolerance for excessive speed and aggressive driving — and people will be issued tickets.

“We had so many people out there and it was advertised ... to have 30 citations, some over 100 mph ... I can’t imagine what traffic is like without this patrol,” Gagnon said. “Everyone sees (aggressive driving) coming home, there are just a lot of aggressive drivers out there.”

The next time the patrol mans the highway, he added, the community won’t be as aware.